Park Row Gallery News

“Down the Shore,” a compelling solo exhibition of photographs by Tony Gonzalez will be on view at Park Row Gallery in Chatham, NY, from September 10th through October 11th, 2008. There will be a special reception with the artist on Saturday, September 20th from 4pm – 6pm, and the public is cordially invited to attend.

“Down the Shore” is a series of over twenty-five black and white and color photographs documenting the people who flock to the beaches, boardwalks and arcades in the towns along the New Jersey shore, not far from where the artist grew up. As Tony Gonzalez describes, “I returned again and again to these fertile grounds to explore the coexistence between the human figures set within both a natural and man made environment. To me, these places promise an endless diversion from everyday existence, a stage on which people play out specific rituals, as when boy meets girl, or when boys will be boys (and girls will be girls)….”

While the artist pays homage to the documentary traditions of street photography, this work is so charged with intimacy that it is more akin to sensuous poems of uninhibited joy and yearning. Indeed, Gonzalez is clearly intrigued with intimate moments, and adeptly captures the expressive gestures and revelations of the human form, in all its beauty and mystery. One can feel the sensual atmosphere too; the stark light of the strong sun in Lifeguards, the sounds of the surf and wind muffling the playful banter of bathers along the shore in Girl with a Striped Bikini, or the cool cleansing spray of a shower washing away the sand and salt of the sea in Boys at Shower. The series seems to celebrate the exhilaration of innocence while capturing casual poses and stares that are at once flirtatious and utterly natural. The liberating angles and juxtapositions hold our attention as we gaze into the shimmering photographs and are seductively lured into the private realms of these strangers, and our own evocative memories of long summer days at the shore.

Tony Gonzalez divides his time between Hudson, NY and New York City. He exhibits his work nationally, and is the recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships. Mr. Gonzalez also teaches and lectures on photography, and is an expert on alternative processes, which he often employs in the service of his painterly photographs. Gonzalez graduated with a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art, and received his MFA from Yale University. His work is widely collected and is included in a number of permanent collections, including the Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY; Numina Gallery, Princeton, NJ; the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Trenton, NJ; and En Foco, Inc., Bronx, NY. Concurrent with this exhibition at Park Row Gallery, Mr. Gonzalez will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery in NYC, from September 5th through October 11th, 2008. According to the artist, "The Bedroom series continues my exploration of the human form and features a group of twenty photographs combining the nineteenth century printing technique of Gum Bichromate with digital technologies."